Hundreds of staring, wondering
eyes followed her, fascinated and yet horrified.
Then she stood on a ledge of rock, and, offering up prayer and praise
to the God of all, Who made the volcano and Who made her, she cast the
Pele berries into the lake, and sent stone after stone down into the
flaming lava. It was the most awful insult that could be offered to
Pele! Now surely she would leap up in fiery anger, and, with a hail
of burning stones, consume Kapiolani. But nothing happened; and
Kapiolani, turning, climbed the steep ascent of the crater edge and at
last stood again unharmed among her people. She spoke to her people,
telling them again that Jehovah made the fires. She called on them all
to sing to His praise and, for the first time, there rang across the
crater of Kilawea the song of Christians. The power of the priests
was gone, and from that hour the people all over that island who had
trembled and hesitated between Pele and Christ turned to the worship
of our Lord Jesus, the Son of God the Father Almighty.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 24: Pay-lay.]
[Footnote 25: Hah-wye-ee.]
[Footnote 26: Discovered by Captain Cook in 1778. The first Christian
missionaries landed in 1819. Now the island is ruled by the United
States of America.
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